FT: Netizen Thoughts on 18th Party Congress

The following is excerpted from the November 7 Financial Times Chinese article “An Inventory of the Popular Will ahead of the ‘18 Big’” (“十八大”前的一份民意清单), written by Editor-in-Chief Zhang Lifen.

FT Chinese’s Zhang Lifen asks the Weibo public what they would like to ask the Party Congress representatives.

The Chinese Communist Party 18th Party Congress begins tomorrow. Today (Wednesday) at 4:30 p.m. I will attend an “18 Big” news conference for Chinese and foreign journalists in the Golden Hall at the Great Hall of the People. Yesterday evening, I posted a weibo soliciting questions from Chinese people from all walks of life. I received nearly 600 replies, touching on all kinds of issues regarding political and economic reform during China’s social transformation, national welfare and the livelihood of the people, which may serve as a reference of Chinese popular will before the congress of the ruling party. Below are a selection of the questions posed by the public.

OldmanNotUseless: This old fellow has a question: How much are the annual membership fees paid by the 80-million-plus Party members nationwide? Could the total income and expenditure be made public during the congress?

老夫尚未朽：老夫有一问题：全国八千多万党员每年度共缴纳多少党费？总计收入与支出可否在会期公布？

VastUniverseWorld: Disclose officials’ personal finances, round up criminals and the corrupt and start a democratic system! The whole country wants just these three things!

ShenzhenHugang: One question: How do eliminate corruption in a one-party system?

深圳胡纲：问一个，如何在一党制下消除腐败？

LiAn_NaDu: Can we not get domestic news from foreign media?

李安_纳度：能不能不从外媒得知国内新闻？

Llqrjl: I have an academic question: How do you learn to bullshit without blushing?

黄金镖：我问个学术性的，说瞎话不脸红是怎么锻炼出来的？

Chengqingui: When will we change parties? When will we have a referendum?

啸傲昨天：什么时候换党，什么时候全民公投啊。

Lanfenglin: My question is what the peasants should do whose life savings are not enough to buy homes for their sons to settle down in the cities. Is their life of hard work obliterated by inflation? Or who is stealing it?

WitheredCucumber: As a Party member, I hope our Party activities won’t disturb the lives of the people who are outside the Party, and I don’t want the funding for our activities to come from tax payers outside the Party. Can these these two hopes be fulfilled?

霜打的黄瓜：作为党员，希望我党的活动不要干扰党外民众的正常生活，也不希望活动经费来自非党员纳税人，这两点可能实现吗？

Hongyu79: Could we increase education spending, and especially ensure proper compensation of teachers in rural areas? A little tip: fine corrupt officials and invest the money into education in their jurisdictions.

城北书生：能否大力度加大教育投入，尤其是农村地区的师资待遇能否得到有力保障？小建议：把罚没贪腐官员的钱款资产专门用于该地区的教育投入。

Lya402: The question I want to address is that people are demanding reform of the political system, but it cannot be pushed through if we do not have freedom of speech. I want to ask: What specific plans do the new leaders have in terms of allowing freedom of speech?